Biology

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The Kzinti are a felinoid race which fought a few minor wars with Earth in the late-21st or early-22nd century. Their political state is known as The Patriarchy, a name which reflects the sexist culture of the species.

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The Kzinti are a large, carnivorous cat-like species. They typically feature orange/brown fur with prominent fangs and tufted ears.

Some Kzinti possess telepathic abilities allowing them to read other beings' minds. However, Kzinti telepaths are neurotic and one can deter them from doing so by thinking about eating raw vegetables, which disgusts them. (TASepisode: "The Slaver Weapon")

The Kzinti culture is a violent one and highly prejudiced; they pay no respect to females or herbivores of any race, since Kzinti are sexist in the extreme - females of their species are not sentient and are regarded as 'dumb animals'. (TASepisode: "The Slaver Weapon")

Not long after the planet Earth developed warp drive the Kzinti fought a series of minor wars with the planet. The conflicts came to an end with the Treaty of Sirius which disarmed the Kzinti and limited their space force to a collection of police vessels.

Kzinti artwork developed for "Star Trek: The Lions of the Night" and later printed in "Star Trek Communicator".

The Kzinti were created by Larry Niven, making their first appearance in the short story "The Warriors", part of his "Known Space" series. When he wrote an episode for Star Trek: The Animated Series he based it on one of his Known Space stories "The Soft Weapon", in the process putting the Kzinti into the Star Trek universe.

Jimmy Diggs, a writer for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, has on a number of occasions attempted to tell more stories of the Kzinti, first with a proposal for a feature-length animation "Star Trek: The Lions of the Night". Material developed for that project was later worked into an article for the "Star Trek Communicator" in which he put forth the idea that the Kzinti would make excellent Star Trek villains. His most recent attempt would have seen the Kzinti appear in a season five episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. However the series was cancelled before this came to fruition.